After months and months of preparation, I’m really happy to welcome you to Freeplay for 2015. Take a look around our beautiful new website – with amazing artwork from our Visual Art Lead, Marigold Bartlett.
There’s so much to tell you all about what we’ve got planned for 2015, but I’m not sure I can do a better job than letting you rummage through our new site. A keynote from the first videogame composer to be nominated for a Grammy award, a great new ten day format with a fete (a fete!), a film screening, and even a game jam.
But here’s some things that I love about our new 2015 presence that you might otherwise miss:
- This is not only our biggest festival ever, but it’s also one of our most affordable. Tickets are only $55 for everything, and 80% of our events are free anyway.
- It’s also our most inclusive and wide-reaching festival ever. We’ve got an entire section of our program that’s streamed online for free. That means an audience—and a speaker roster—from all over Australia. Maybe even from all over the world.
- Not to mention the fact that we’re working with an amazing array of groups and organisations to bring you this festival—Film Victoria, ACMI, Arts Centre Melbourne, The Wheeler Centre, Hovergarden, and many more still to be announced.
- We’ve finally got a functioning Freeplay history section on the site. It’s not all there yet, but there’s already some great stuff—including our 2007 keynote Jonathan Blow hanging out with some suspiciously young-looking former Freeplay staff.
- Photos from all our 2014 events, and a full-length video recording of our Parallels Showcase.
- A detailed listing of all the amazing people who are helping make Freeplay what it is this year.
I’m so looking forward to what we’ve got in store for Freeplay 2015. Do take a look at the program guide, and grab some tickets to our events.
Anyway, I can’t wait to see you at the festival.
– Dan Golding, Freeplay Director